The latest video from Cinematic Laboratory asks the question, “Do we need a Buchla Music Easel in Eurorack format?”
In the last few years, Tiptop Audio has released a complete series of Buchla modules, essentially reissuing the Buchla 200 Series in Eurorack format. The line has been a big hit, with each new addition tending to sell out for months. This has left synthesists wanting more.
Cinematic Laboratory’s video looks at the Buchla Music Easel’s capabiities, and shows how many of the Easel’s components are already available in the current 200T lineup. The biggest gap is probably wavefolding.
But many would argue that the Music Easel is a more than the some of its parts, offering a complete Buchla synth in a compact all-in-one solution.
The video suggests that a big part of the musicality of Music Easel performances is its capacitive touch keyboard.
Should Tiptop bring the Buchla 218 to Eurorack format? And what about the Music Easel? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!
A eurorack compatible Easel is apparently coming through Behringer. But their queasy conduct makes me loath at the idea of getting it.
A Buchla co. Tiptop audio recreation with eurorack patchability would be very desirable. The Easel alone is obviously an excellent compact instrument but experimental patching expansion is hugely appealing.
Perhaps just the touch keyboard could use a eurorack version, at least a more affordable competitor to Verbos’ offering. But as long as a Tiptop Audio self contained semi modular unit has MIDI in, you can always use an iPad/Animoog type interface or a hardware MPE unit like Osmose or Seaboard.
If I had my druthers I’d rather see a Kinesthetic Input Port with a Thunder controller, something like the System Interface for quad output, and a Dual Arbitrary Function Generator. I’ve been extremely happy with all the modules I have so far and I’m looking forward to whatever Tiptop does next.
Not really. Its a nostalgia piece for old age collectors. The tiptop modules are just fine, it doesnt require a debate. The market decides who wants what
SUM
It’s a silly question to ask.
Most of the big names in Eurorack make modules derived from Buchla modules. You can make a Eurorack Music Easel using Verbos and Make Noise modules. With maybe a few things left off and other things added in that aren’t accurate.
I think it would make a lot of sense to have a Eurorack Easel alongside the Tiptop modules. Semi-modular is a different experience than modular and from what I understand, the sections of the Easel sound different than the corresponding 200 modules.
On a side note, I think what a lot of modular synthesists really need is a few years of working on their production skills in a DAW. Without the cool factor of modular, you have to let the music speak, so there is more incentive (and possibilities) to make things sound good. I mean, in this specific video, the synthesist is telling us that the BIA is doing a great job at a kick. Now RLY?
Modular is notoriously great at making great sounds, but notoriously bad at makes those sounds go well together. Unless you start to run things through full-featured standalone mixers (or… a DAW). But if you’ve decided early on that only modular was cool enough for you, and you never learned how to make things sound good, then the best you can achieve is just a pile of sounds, that are absolutely unaware of each others’ existence.